Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.

Friday, December 07, 2012

The secret contents of secondhand books

One bookshop has collected some of the odd, intriguing personal treasures left within the pages of 'pre-loved' volumes

Ethical qualms aside, the biggest problem in collecting second-hand-books-that-have-been-inscribed-with-personal-messages-from-their-previous-owner(s) is finding the buggers in the first place. I have not been blessed with any innate inscription-dowsing abilities. Nor do I fancy (on the whole) spending countless number of hours trawling through the shelves of secondhand bookshops in the vain hope of accidently uncovering some heartfelt scrawl. Fortunately, though, I have made the acquaintance of a number of booksellers from across London who are kind enough to keep an eye out for me and put aside any inscribed books they happen to stumble on. And so a big thanks to Terry at Spitalfields market, Jon and Paddy of Word on the Water, Merissa at the British Heart Foundation charity shop on Holloway Road, and the team at Skoob Books off Marchmont Street (without whom a strange little fetish would have struggled to flourish).It was while I was collecting my latest find from Skoob Books that the manager, Chris, asked if I was interested in visiting their warehouse in Oxford and having a look at some of the items they've found inside secondhand books over the years. Now, Skoob's warehouse is home to more than a million volumes – one of the largest private collections in the UK, with each insertion and inscription dutifully collated – so needless to say I jumped at the chance. (It's probably worth mentioning here that this is not a storehouse of remainders or pallets of books that nobody wants. Rather, each volume is a previously-read book, bought with the commitment to "find another reader if at all possible", the admirable mission being to resist the shredder and the digitiser and preserve the context, as well as the content, of the printed word.) And so it was that, one bright and balmy day, Chris drove me to an industrial estate just outside the city. Here, I was allowed to wander the musty aisles, before being taken into one of the offices to gaze upon the fabled Wall of Found: a series of noticeboards that I was given permission to partially dismantle for the purpose of this piece.

Pressed flowers

Do people still press flowers and leaves between the pages of books? Or has this practice gone the way of making one's own perfume out of petals, playing penny-up-against-the-wall and buying imitation-leather bookmarks?

Bookmarks (see above for picture)

Not surprisingly, bookmarks are a common find in secondhand books. And here is a rather nice selection. Personally, my favourite is the black imitation-leather RSC bookmark. Which made me wonder: whatever did happen to imitation-leather bookmarks? Once upon a time, no family outing to a museum or zoo was complete without coming away with a souvenir imitation-leather bookmark. Now, they're like hens' teeth. I assume there's some perfectly reasonable, environmentally sound explanation for their disappearance, but the world does seem a slightly less civilised place without them… (anyone?)

Dog-photo, tickets, etc

A business card, an inspirational poem-cum-bookplate, a blurred photograph of an inquisitive chocolate-brown dog, a child's handmade card, an ad for Spokes & Son's Motor Cycle Service, and an itemised bill for rooms 10-11, of the Caledonian Hotel, Callander, circa 1953. Surely, we have all the necessary ingredients for a good William Trevor short story right here…

Telegram

Or perhaps a novella by Graham Greene ...

Postcards

A random selection of postcards. Less dramatic than the letter, perhaps, but far more aesthetically pleasing (with the odd exception).

1 comment:

Absolutely loved this article and the comments on it from Guardian readers. I also collect items I find in second-hand books. I'm wondering if this is a sign that having inscriptions inside may in future increase the value of books rather than decrease it. In which case now is the time to buy them up. By the way it's not true that fake leather bookmarks have disappeared, they're still on sale everywhere I go